CPU cooler is an important part of your custom PC build. If you want more out of your processor, you need a good quality aftermarket cooler for that purpose. Your stock cooler is not sufficient to handle that enormous amount of heat that comes as a result of overclocking.
At this point, you will need an aftermarket CPU cooler that falls under your budget and maintains the temperature of the processor at its lowest.
However, the cost of cooling down your processor comes at a different price. The quality of an aftermarket CPU cooler depends upon your budget. But there are many top-rated CPU coolers under 50 Dollars from brands like Cooler Master and ARCTIC to fit into your gaming PC.
To help you out in choosing an inexpensive CPU cooler, we have prepared a list of best affordable CPU coolers under 50 Dollars.
Wallet-friendly heatsinks can save you a lot of money when building your next gen gaming PC. On a low budget, you have to avoid liquid CPU coolers or water coolers at all costs.
Best Affordable CPU Coolers under 50 Dollars
Our chart includes some of the best low budget aftermarket CPU coolers for AMD and Intel Sockets.
1. Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi | Best Cheap CPU Cooler
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel + AMD |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm |
| Heat Pipes | 3 |
Cryorig H7 is one of the cheapest aftermarket CPU coolers available in the market at the moment. The H7 easily fits in with the Intel and AMD supported motherboards.
It is a perfectly designed CPU cooler with Hive Fins structure that facilitates the proper flow of air. It comes with three heat pipes that are well connected to a copper base.
On top of all, it has a quiet yet powerful 120mm fan to add more life to the heat sink. It’s a low profile CPU cooler that can easily fit in small ITX cases due to its 145mm height. Indeed, this is one of the best $50 CPU cooler that lies at a sweet spot between budget and performance.
2. ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO | Best Low Budget CPU Cooler with 2 Fans
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel + AMD |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm |
| Heat Pipes | 4 (Copper pipes) |
ARCTIC Freezer 34 is one of the most recommended CPU coolers for someone who is low on budget. If you want a high-end heatsink for a gaming PC, then this might be your ultimate choice.
It has dual fan technology to promote excellent airflow. To ensure more heat transfer, it comes with 4 copper pipes and a thermal coating.
It comes with a robustly designed heatsink to take care of heat more efficiently. The inclusion of two fans at the front and back promote high static pressure for better cooling.
Moreover, the fans are silent under normal workloads, but a bit noisy when you give them full throttle. The automatic fans stop spinning once your CPU reaches an ideal temperature.
This CPU cooler is ideal to fit in most PC cases that are available in the market. However, a CPU cooler with a 157mm height can be quite challenging to fit in SFF cases.
3. Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition | Most Compact CPU Cooler on Budget
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel + AMD |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm |
| Heat Pipes | 4 (Copper pipes) |
Cooler Master is the most popular CPU cooler brands in the market. High-end air coolers from this company have always been rocketing the market.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB is the most compact CPU cooler with a powerful fan. On top of this, it makes use of 4 copper heat pipes for heat dissipation.
The fin array structure keeps the heatsink ventilated to avoid the heat buildup. The burshed aluminium black surface absorbs heat more to keep your processor cooler.
We loved the RGB lighting scheme that changes with just touch of a button. THe colorful RGB lighting makes this CPU cooler a perfect candidate for gaming PCs.
To dissipate the heat, it packs a powerful PWM 120 mm fan. The fan can spin within 650 to 2000 RPM speeds to cool down your CPU. It’s quite easy to install on AMD and Intel sockets.
4. Cooler Master MASTERAIR MA410P | Inexpensive CPU Cooler Under $50
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel + AMD |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm (With RGB) |
| Heat Pipes | 4 (Copper pipes) CDC |
Our search for the best CPU coolers under 50 Dollars landed us across this cheap air cooler from Cooler Master. This CPU cooler also comes with a compact design that makes it easier to fit in AMD and Intel supported motherboards.
The 120mm RGB fans allow you to customize your gaming rig with thousands of colour schemes for a stylish look. It comes with a wired RGB controller in case if you don’t own an RGB enabled motherboard.
Moreover, it features 4 heatsinks that are in direct contact with the base. The thin fins structure makes the cooler airflow inside more properly and precisely.
This inexpensive RGB CPU cooler is a bit taller than previous ones on our list. However, at 158mm height, it can easily fit in most tower cases for gaming PCs.
The well-designed fan bracket makes it easier to replace the stock fans with another one for more cooling. If you are buying it for AMD supported motherboards, then this might be the right choice.
Apart from its low-quality plastic, this CPU cooler is quite handy in keeping the temperature normal at higher clock levels. For an air cooler under 50 Dollars, it’s something quite hard to achieve.
5. DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 | Wallet-Friendly CPU Air Cooler
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel + AMD |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm (Blue LED) |
| Heat Pipes | 4 (Direct Contact with Base) |
DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 is one of the cheapest aftermarket air coolers for gaming CPUs in the market. Frankly, it is one of the good cheap CPU coolers to get without breaking your bank account.
Just like the other affordable aftermarket CPU coolers, this one also packs 120 mm fans and four heat sinks pipes to suck the heat out from your gaming rig.
To add more colours to your custom PC, this cooler comes with a blue LED. Supporting almost every socket on Intel and AMD platform, this low budget cooler can be a good fit for video editing CPUs.
As far as you are overclocking the old generation of Intel and AMD CPUs, you will hardly feel any difference in the fan noise. But this work well if you are limited to six cores only. CPU with more cores will definitely generate a lot of heat which results in more noise.
Moreover, standing at a height of 155 mm, this low profile CPU cooler is ideal for small form factor PC case. Unless you are not into high-end gaming, this is one of the best CPU cooler for you to get under 50 bucks
6. Noctua NH-L9i | Best Low Profile CPU Cooler in Market
| CPU SOCKET Support | Intel Only |
| Size of Fan | 120 mm (Blue LED) |
| Heat Pipes | 2 with Copper Base |
Low profile rigs are mostly limited to stock coolers, this is the reason that they cannot perform very well in most cases. However, Noctua NH-L9i is an under $50 CPU cooler that fits easily in small form factor PCs.
When we talk about the design, then Noctua NH-L9i reflects the price you pay for it. However, for tiny builds, this design is good enough to dissipate the extra heat.
It’s a good performer despite its ultra low profile design. It comes with quite fans that automatically throttles with the workload on your CPU.
Noctua NH L9i is an easy to install CPU cooler on a new rig. It sits well on the CPU and saves a lot of space. Moreover, you don’t need to take out extra ram from your PC to make it sit on your processor.
We loved the amazing build quality of the heatsink on this cheap CPU cooler. This aftermarket cooler is perfect for cooling down Intel i3 and i5 CPUs. However, CPUs ending with ”K” might not need something more powerful than L9i to cool down.
But L9i delivers good performance when compared to stock coolers from Intel. So this entry-level CPU cooler is best for low-level rigs where you don’t have to deal with overclocking.
If you are building a CPU for music production or video editing, then this cheap aftermarket cooler can be ideal for you. The only thing it misses out on is the support for AMD socket.
Apart from that, it takes time to assemble on old rigs, as you have to take out the whole motherboard from the case to mount the Cooler.
How to Choose the Best CPU Coolers Under 50 Dollars
When buying a CPU cooler on budget, you have to look out for many factors. A good strategy is to choose an aftermarket cooler that is cheap and compatible with your current specs. Below are some of the things to look after when buying a cheap CPU cooler.
Processor
Some low-end processors from Intel and AMD do not have overclocking or over 4 cores. Therefore, at this point, you can keep up with entry-level CPU coolers with old generation CPUs.
However, the processors with the extreme performance or overclocking need a well-performing CPU cooler to handle the heat.
PC Case
When looking for a CPU cooler under 50 Dollars, you have to make sure that it fits in your current tower case. Some CPU coolers have wide heat sink that swaps a lot of space.
Processor Socket
CPU coolers are manufactured according to the CPU sockets from the Intel and AMD. Most aftermarket air coolers fit in easily with both the AMD and Intel sockets. However, some are specially designed for either AMD or Intel motherboards.
Type of Cooler
Mainly there are two types of cooling systems for PC, the Air, and the Liquid. Traditional coolers or air coolers make use of a fan to circulate through the heatsink.
Liquid CPU coolers make use of water or related cooling liquid to manage the temperature of the CPU. Liquid coolers are more reliable and efficient than air coolers. However, these are more expensive than traditional CPU coolers.
Design
Many people prefer aftermarket CPU coolers for their design and RGB lights. A well-designed cooler is always easy to mount on your current rig and covers less space.
Speed Control
Although automatic fans manage the RPM of a cooler more precisely, sometimes it is wise to look for a CPU cooler with speed controls. This allows you to have more control over the speed of the fan and helps in overclocking when needed.
The Bottom Line
When looking for CPU coolers under 50 Dollars for a gaming rig, you get a large list of aftermarket coolers. But you must choose the ones that fall under your budget and don’t push you on buying new components.
The main purpose of buying a cooler is to maintain the temperature of your CPU. Aftermarket coolers that are cheap also include RGB lights to add more show to your rig.
However, if your primary concern is to reduce the heat of your processor, you can sacrifice for the additional features like RGB and LED lights. By spending less than $50, you can get a good quality CPU cooler to last for years.
